Does Location Matter When it comes to Web Hosting?

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about the effect of location on performance when it comes to web hosting. More specifically, can the location of your web hosting company’s data center improve your website’s performance and therefore have a positive effect on your SEO. My experience has been that a web hosting location can have an impact on how well your site runs. However, there are two sides to consider when choosing a location.

It makes sense that the closer you are to your web server, the faster your response times are going to be. So, if you find a good web host that has a data center close to where you’re located, you should find that your connect and file transfer times are better than if your server was half-way around the world. This is great when you are building and maintaining your website.

What about your users? If your target audience is close to where you are located, then there’s no problem. Ideally, the location of your web hosting data center would be close to you and your audience. But that’s not always the case. While some articles advise you to choose a hosting location that is close to your target market, it’s not always possible if your market is spread out over a large area.

Therefore, I think the best approach when considering your web hosting location is to select a company with a data center close to your own area and that also has a demonstrated track record of good network and server performance. That way, you’ll enjoy the benefits of better speeds when building, testing, and accessing your site. And, the quality of your established web hosting company’s servers and network performance will hopefully allow your users that are not only close by, but also in other parts of your country to access your website at better than average times.